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A Leg Up
A Rhan K'hal Log
(Note on log timing: if any of the involved parties want to use this for their own log, the timing would be soon after the last sim; if not, it would be shortly before the next sim.)
Quantum Slipstream Drive. While Rhan may love gadgets and cutting-edge tech, QSD exploded well past his tolerance. To anyone who has followed the technology's "progress," Rhan amongst them, it was not a three word phrase that excited him. To discover that Command had unilaterally decided that the Excalibur was the vessel to try out the latest incarnation on put a bushel of butterflies in his stomach. Not to mention pissing him off. Did Command think that the Excalibur's crew was so used to being pissed on that they'd just shrug this latest slap in the face right off and merrily risk being ripped into elementary particles?
Rhan wasn't going to take it lying down, sitting up, standing or even doing cartwheels for that matter. While his family connections gave him a lot of options, reversing Command's cockamamie decision wasn't one of the options. Anything short of an invasion probably wouldn't make that happen, and that would hardly be an improvement in the overall situation. That did not mean the sneaky Cait was entirely out of options, however.
After a great deal of entirely unauthorized fiddling with the shipyard's computer system, he managed to tunnel a hole through their communications and database systems that would go unnoticed except under a full level one computer diagnostic, and that's if someone was paying really close attention. Even then they'd have a hard time figuring out how it got there, let alone who did it. After slipping a PADD out of the station's supply, stripping the safeguards out of it and creating a hidden account aptly named "Anonymous," he then used this new untraceable route to access the Starfleet R&D's computer.
Managing to make a hole in that was considerably more difficult, as a number of foreign powers would certainly like to and likely had already tried to do the same, but then they didn't know Starfleet's computer systems and encryption as well as Rhan did. Nor did they have an Academy friend working there to, entirely unbeknownst to them, give the Cait a small window ledge to hang on to during a seemingly normal but out of the blue "hey, how's it going" communique.
Slipping off to the shipyard during his off-duty hours, it took days of careful work to finally open a usable access point for him to have free reign within the R&D system. While he certainly could have had a great deal of fun downloading the whole shebang and reading through it at his leisure, he was on a mission; even if it was an illegal one. Command should be used to that though, as he'd basically been doing one damned illegal thing after another at their behest since he left the Academy, thanks primarily to Admiral A-Hole.
First, Rhan downloaded the entire specifications of the current incarnation of the QSD. From what he'd heard from grumblings down in engineering, the installation team wasn't being terribly forthcoming with the Excalibur engineers, and he was sure they'd appreciate the leg up. As for himself, they hadn't shared a single bit of information on the command and control computer programs that went along with the unit, and he'd be damned if he was going to let Hunter press "Go" if he didn't think the computer could properly calculate the enormous amount of data required to keep the QSD running. Also he figured Ithene, who wasn't too picky about rules and regulations at times either, could review the scientific aspects to see if there were any glaring holes that needed to be plugged.
His second task was to pull data on the entire team responsible for the QSD: those that remained behind at R&D, the Daystrom Institute, and the Utopia Planitia Shipyards, as well as those that came along and were working on the project on the Excalibur directly. R&D personnel were some of the most highly vetted people in Starfleet, and the portions of their files that were hidden under normal circumstances showed it. If someone got detention in 2nd grade for chewing gum during class, the dossier would have it down.
While R&D personnel may be highly vetted, they're also forgiven a lot of indiscretions if they're good enough. One need look no farther than the legendary Reginald Barclay's involvement in the Pathfinder Project. Rhan suspected some individuals involved with the install team might have some embarassing blotches, and after a look, he found he was right. How useful that information would be, well only time would tell.
After packaging up all of his ill-begotten data, lamenting the fact that it was all digital so he couldn't add a real bow, he sent the various data packages around. Commander Hawthorne received the whole deal; Commander Admiran received all of the engineering and computer data, as did Lieutenant Commander Vallorn; Hunter received the necessary flight control subroutines and procedures; and Rhan sent himself the computer data (while creating a highly encrypted portable memory module with everything that no one need know about).
While Rhan had been tempted when creating the "Anonymous" account to take a page out of Earth history and use a shadowy figure in a Guy Fawkes mask as a profile photo, he'd instead used the Starfleet Delta with a question mark engraved into it instead. That should create enough mystery regarding the sender. Especially as even any in depth investigation wouldn't even be able to tell that the messages were sent from the station, it would only look like the station forwarded it on to the Excalibur. As to where it would look like they originated, Rhan managed to tailor the data to make it appear it popped into existence in one of the communications relays outside the Badlands.
As to anyone's intuition that a certain furry felinoid may have been involved... Rhan was a pretty damned good liar. Just because he normally wore his feelings as openly as an overcoat didn't mean that he wasn't willing and able to prevaricate when necessary. He'd be just as surprised as anyone. That is if any of the copied parties weren't content to act as if the data had conveniently fell out of a spatial anomaly into their laps.